A particularly popular service offered by many telecommunication service providers is a call forwarding service. A subscriber who has call forwarding service may specify that at certain times all of his or her calls be forwarded to a forwarded location. The subscriber typically may also specify that if a call that is forwarded to the forwarded location goes unanswered, then the call may be routed to a voice mail service (VMS) that is applied to a designated directory number associated with the subscriber. Usually, this designated directory number is the home telephone number of the subscriber, but it may be any other directory number such as the subscriber's office directory number, car phone number, etc.
Even though a call forwarding service is a popular service, a typical call forwarding service does have some drawbacks. One drawback is that a caller may suffer a delay in the connection of his or her call in certain circumstances. One such circumstance relates to the process of a caller being connected to the voice mail service of a called party who has not answered the caller's call that has been forwarded to a forwarded location. In other words, a caller may suffer a delay in the connection of his or her call when the call goes unanswered at the forwarded location and the call has to be routed to the voice mailbox of the called party.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a process that causes the delay that a caller may suffer in being connected to a called party's voice mail service. For this example, assume that a subscriber to a call forwarding service has directed that all of his or her calls that go unanswered at a forwarded location be sent to the subscriber's voice mail service. Also assume that a caller has called the subscriber, that the call has been forwarded to a forwarded location, and that the call has gone unanswered at the forwarded location (block 7 of FIG. 1.) So, the call forwarding service, taking note of the unanswered call at the forwarded location, calls the home telephone number of the subscriber as shown in block 8, and waits for the call to be forwarded to the subscriber's voice mail service as shown in block 9. Typically, after three or four rings, the voice mail service answers the call, per block 10, and the caller may leave a message for the subscriber in the subscriber's voice mailbox. Connecting the caller to the subscriber's mailbox pursuant to the process shown in FIG. 1 takes about 18-24 seconds (3-4 rings of a telephone). In the greater scheme of things, 18-24 seconds may seem inconsequential. But in the competitive world of telecommunications, 18-24 seconds is a delay that is noticeable to a caller, and generally is not appreciated. Such a noticeable delay to a caller is something service providers wish to avoid.
FIG. 2 illustrates another example of a process that causes the delay that a caller may suffer in being connected to a called party's voice mail service. As with the previous example, assume that a subscriber to a call forwarding service has directed that all of his or her calls that go unanswered at a forwarded location be sent to the subscriber's voice mail service. Also assume that a caller has called the subscriber, that the call has been forwarded to a forwarded location, and that the call has gone unanswered at the forwarded location (block 11 of FIG. 2.) So, the call forwarding service, taking note of the unanswered call at the forwarded location, calls the telephone number of the voice mail service of the subscriber (block 12). In block 13, the voice mail service answers the call, and as illustrated in block 14, the call forwarding service responds by outpulsing the subscriber's mailbox number. The call then is connected to the subscriber's voice mailbox (block 15). Connecting the caller to the subscriber's voice mailbox pursuant to the process shown in FIG. 2 takes less time than the process illustrated in FIG. 1, but the FIG. 2 process still takes about 6-12 seconds (1-2 rings of a telephone). In other words, after a call has noticeably gone unanswered, the caller is delayed another 6-12 seconds from being able to leave a voice mail message for the subscriber. Even though this FIG. 2 process is quicker than the FIG. 1 process, it still involves a delay in the connection of a call that is noticeable, and often annoying, to a caller. Service providers are interested in eliminating or at least minimizing such annoyances to their customers and subscribers.
Accordingly, there is a need for a process that minimizes the delay suffered by a caller during the process of being connected to the voice mail service of a called party in the circumstance when a call forwarded to a forwarded location goes unanswered.